US Congress investigating Bangladesh Bank robbery

DHAKA, Bangladesh — A U.S. congressional committee is investigating how hackers managed to divert $101 million from Bank of Bangladesh accounts held at the Federal Reserve in New York.

The February theft led the Bangladesh central bank's chairman to resign, and added to worries about the security of online bank data.

In a letter to the Fed's president dated Tuesday, the Science Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives asked for "all documents and communications" about the cyberattack and the security of the Fed's SWIFT Alliance Access money transfer system.

Stopped

In the attack, the hackers tried to steal a total of $1 billion through 35 international money transfer orders, 30 of which were stopped.

The Bangladesh Bank later recovered some money from a Sri Lankan bank and from a Chinese casino junket operator based in the Philippines.

"Weaknesses existed within the computer network of the Bangladesh Bank and based on research done by a third party, cyber criminals were able to exploit these vulnerabilities," says the letter, posted on the committee's website.

"Then, the cyber criminals covered their tracks using malware" that was able to manipulate money transfer request records as well as account balances as shown in logs, as well as to intercept messages verifying transfer orders.

Bangladesh authorities had said earlier they were considering suing the Reserve Bank. (AP)